Guardian's Burden
by sour gummies
Summary: A year after the infamous Chitauri incident, Loki of Asgard seems to be up to his old tricks. Armed with a new horde of alien collaborators, the villain is merrily engaging the Avengers in a fight that creates a warzone out of upper Manhattan...that is, until a group of child superheroes gets caught in the crossfire. Paternal!Loki, avengerkink fill. Featuring Marvel's Power Pack.


a/n: Old fic. Probably the only thing I ever wrote for LJ's avengerkink, although it's been so long I can't really remember.

The prompt requested (not in my words), "Protective!Daddy!Loki" in the wake of some kids being endangered during a superhero fight. I really just wanted an excuse to write Marvel's _Power Pack_ into the MCU, and they seemed be a good fit for the themes in question.

* * *

It's already too late when Alex Power realizes they're all in over their heads.

"Julie!" he shouts, stumbling over his own feet in a clumsy attempt to dodge the falling rubble all around them. "Jul—ah, _Lightspeed,_ get back here now! Regroup!"

He stops running, throws up his hands and concentrates. There's a familiar, shuddering sensation deep in his bones, and Alex feels a gravity distortion, his special superpower, flowing out of him from his extremities. He uses the gravity field to make himself weightless, to make the debris weightless.

But Alex can only impact gravity, not inertia: despite his best efforts, the rocks are still falling over his head. They'll crush him if he doesn't find a way out.

"I've got you, Gee!" comes a frantic voice behind him. Before Alex can turn, he's suddenly airborne, soaring through the sky with his sister's hands firmly grasped on his shoulders. Thanks to his weightlessness, Julie can carry him easily; her alien-gifted superpower is flight. A stream of rainbow-colored light trails brightly in her wake as she flies them both out of range. It's the reason they call her Lightspeed.

Alex is twelve years old. Julie is ten.

The battle continues to rage on all around them. There are magic blasts firing through the sky above Manhattan, flying rocks and bulbous aliens and bullets and arrows and shields soaring everywhere like frisbees, and—is that _Iron Man?_—plenty of hero-shaped blurs passing by them in the air. Lightspeed ignores the Avengers and their fight for the moment, flying with Alex until they hit the end of the block, where their siblings Jack and Katie are waiting for them. Both have their superhero costumes on, blue and yellow respectively, and both look impatient and eager to rejoin the fight.

"Mass Master! Energizer!" Julie calls with relief, depositing herself and Alex safely onto to the ground beside the younger kids. "Are you two all right?"

"Of course we're all right," Jack, Mass Master, scoffs derisively. He's eight years old. Katie is five. "C'mon, Alex, we're Power Pack! We've been through way worse than this!"

In one sense, Jack is right. The four Power siblings are no strangers to alien attacks, nor to grandiose superhero battles. In fact, Alex and the rest of the Pack are here today because they followed the aliens out to New York in the first place, mistakenly believing them to be related to an extraterrestrial threat that normally hit a little closer to home.

But these winged beasts are nothing like the Snarks Power Pack has fought in the past. They're larger, airborne, _infinitely_ more vicious, and Alex is suddenly doubtful that his siblings' powers are going to be enough of a match here to really help.

_Or to keep us alive, even._ The dark thought comes out of nowhere and slips unbidden all the way down Alex's spine, making his skin prickle with goose bumps. Even with the Avengers so close, it won't be easy to keep his siblings safe in a fight like this. They've all been in tough situations before, he knows, but keeping his brother and sisters safe is still his responsibility, as the oldest, and Alex suddenly has a very bad feeling about their chances of coming away unscathed if they go out and fight today the way they usually do.

Especially not with the notorious Loki of Asgard participating in the attack as well, aiding the strange new aliens in their ruthless destruction of Manhattan. It's an awful lot like reliving the infamous Chitauri incident a year ago all over again, only this time up, it's up close, and Alex and his siblings are here in the thick of it.

But if rest of Power Pack is as unsettled as Alex by the magnitude of this particular battle, they aren't showing it.

"This is so cool!" Jack says giddily, his eyes uncharacteristically bright as he glances behind Alex to watch the carnage raging in the streets—aliens are collapsing on the pavement with their heads caved, limbs twisted horribly out of their sockets. "Alex—uh, that is, Gee—can you even _believe_ this, we're actually fighting alongside the Avengers! The _Avengers!_"

"Hang on, Mass Master," Alex starts, heart pounding, but little Katie cuts him off.

"I tried to hit Loki with an energy ball, Gee," she says anxiously, wringing her hands. "He moved outta the way and I didn't get him, but I'm all charged up now, so I can fight! I broke down a whole lot of the rubble for power."

Katie is the Energizer in their group: she has the ability to break down matter and convert it into powerful blasts of energy, a gift so destructive it can sometimes be frightening. But Katie herself isn't a violent child, and even now, her eyes keep flickering over to the battle, wincing whenever she sees anything too violent. The dangers of fighting usually sail right over her five-year-old head, but this fight is several degrees more brutal than what they're used to.

"Now, hang on there, Energizer," Julie objects, using her most pragmatic voice, and Alex silently thanks her for her smarts. "We can't just rush in recklessly and attack the bad guys like a bunch of numbskulls. We need a plan! Loki's a lot stronger than any of the villains we've fought before, and these aliens are _seriously_ tough."

"What are you talking about? We can do this!" Jack argues hotly. "Don't be such a killjoy, Julie! Remember all those Snarks we've taken down back home? This guy will be a piece of cake."

"Mass Master, Loki is _way_ more powerful than—" Alex starts, but a horrified shriek from Julie cuts him off.

"Oh no! Captain America!"

Alex whirls around, forgetting Jack. Captain America is plummeting hard from the sky before them, shot down by an errant blast of magic, and he's headed straight for a hard collision with the unforgiving asphalt below.

Super-soldier or not, a fall like that will kill anyone, Alex realizes with a bolt of fear. As Gee, he knows the power and danger of _gravity_ better than anyone, and he knows that without help, Steve Rogers won't survive if he hits the ground.

Alex looks around wildly, taking stock of the rest of the Avengers. Iron Man is busy fighting Loki one-on-one, too busy to stage a rescue. The Hulk and Thor are bogged down, tearing at the alien horde around them. He can't see the others, but Alex has read up on them well enough to know that none of them have powers that would give them the slightest chance of reaching Captain America before he connects with the ground.

It's only the Pack. There's no choice but to act.

"Mass Master, cover us!" Alex commands, making himself weightless and taking Julie's hand. She nods, seizing Katie with her other arm, and the three of them soar into the air like bullets, racing as quickly as Lightspeed can move through the sky toward Captain America.

The air rapidly fills with fog—that's Mass Master, using his density powers to expand himself into a cloud to hide them. The aliens nearby make terrible hissing noises, upset at being blinded, but Jack leaves his siblings an opening in the mist to keep sight of their target.

"Lightspeed, there!" Alex calls, pointing. Captain America is dropping like a stone through the air dead ahead of them.

"On my way!" Lightspeed shouts, rocketing forward, and Alex knows that's his cue.

Concentrating, Alex focuses his gravity powers on Captain Rogers, rendering the Avenger completely weightless, _just_ in time for Julie to intercept him from the air in a streak of light.

He's safe. They're safe. Katie cheers, firing off energy blasts at a few aliens who had slipped through Jack's cloud to follow them.

"This is fun, Gee!" Katie says, giggling.

"Concentrate, Energizer!" Alex warns, his voice sharp. He glances over at Captain Rogers. "This isn't a game. I think Captain America's hurt. Lightspeed, take us down NOW!"

The three of them reach the ground just in time to reunite with Mass Master, who quickly condenses back into his human form.

"Did you see me? I made a buncha those aliens crash, because they couldn't see!" he brags, proudly puffing up his chest. "Am I great or what?"

Before Alex can tell him to knock it off, Captain Rogers begins to stir, catching all of their attentions. Alex and Julie lean over the fallen Avenger, wide-eyed—and then suddenly, Black Widow is running up to them in long graceful strides, her expression angry and confused.

"Who are you?" she demands forcefully, strands of her red hair plastered to her face as she glances from Alex to Julie to Jack to Katie in turn.

"We're Power Pack, Miss Avenger Lady!" Katie says cheerfully. "I'm Energizer!"

"You're _Black Widow,_" Jack begins, awed, but Julie briskly cuts him off.

"Introductions later, Mass Master! Captain Rogers is hurt," she says, gesturing to Captain America.

"...Actually, I've been through worse," Captain Rogers mutters from the ground, blinking up blearily at them. He's finally regained consciousness, thankfully looking himself, if a little worse for the wear. He seems confused by what he sees. "Nat, am I going crazy, or are there a bunch of kids here on the battlefield?"

There's no time for her to answer. One of the larger alien beasts roars nearby, spotting their group clustered on the ground, and Alex pales, pulling his siblings close.

"Lightspeed, can you fly faster than that thing?" Alex demands.

"I—I don't know!" Julie stammers.

Below them, Captain America shakes off his paralysis and stands, shakily raising his shield in one arm. Black Widow moves to his side at once, poised and ready, with loaded guns in both of her hands.

"You children get out of here!" she barks. "It isn't safe!"

She's right.

"Not safe?" Jack demands, indignant, and before Alex can react, his brother is pulling away from him, moving toward the Avengers. "We're superheroes too! We can help you!"

No. Not against this.

The alien beast flies toward them, its enormous jaws outstretched, and behind it Alex sees Loki of Asgard trailing in the air. He's standing atop another flying beast, towering over them. Even from the ground, Alex can see the ugly look on the god's face.

"Using children to fight your battles?" Loki calls out, his voice purely disdainful, with an edge of something hard underlying. "Brother, I have overestimated your honor. Did you think to use their very lives as shields?"

The ground suddenly shakes all around them, toppling the Power siblings like dominoes to the ground. When Alex frantically looks up, he discovers the source: Thor has landed nearby, the Hulk crashing alongsoide in his wake, and between the two of them the street is splintering apart like a jigsaw puzzle assembling in reverse.

"Those children are not our warriors, Brother!" Thor roars, swinging his war-hammer menacingly in warning. "But you would do well to stop this madness before they are hurt!"

Mass Master—Jack—dissolves into a cloud before their eyes, funneling into the air above the closest alien.

"Stop treating us like little kids!" he shouts angrily. He shrinks himself into a solid, smaller form with all the density of a wrecking ball, stomping down on the alien's head with both feet. The creature roars in agony, crashing to the ground, but more are closing in.

"_Jack!_" Alex screams, because he doesn't know what's going to happen next, and he doesn't know what Loki or the aliens plan to do and he doesn't know if he can fight them if he has to. "Jack, get back here!"

Alex runs forward to get his brother, and then several things happen at once:

Black Widow and Hawkeye take aim, and start shooting off bullets and arrows respectively, firing with everything they have at Loki.

Loki raises his hands, calling the alien beasts nearby to his defense, and Jack rises up in cloud form unthinkingly to follow them, grinning in anticipation of a fight.

More aliens lunge toward the Avengers on the ground, while Iron Man swoops in from above, his arm cannon preemptively charged to fire on the extraterrestrial targets.

Iron Man has been distracted fighting Loki this whole time. Not even his top-of-the-line sensory equipment is wired to identify the coalescing fog in the air near the aliens as an out-of-place, eight-year-old boy.

Jack Power sees the cannon aiming directly for him and freezes, forgetting that he's currently caught between Iron Man and Iron Man's targets, the aliens. The shock of being on the firing end of a blasting weapon causes Mass Master to temporarily lose control of his cloud form and revert back into a child, right as Stark looses his first cannon fire.

Time freezes. The Avengers cry out as one, horrified, and an expression of terrible fear and shock flits across Loki's face.

And Alex Power has already lunged into the air to save his brother.

He almost doesn't make it to Jack in time—with inertia as his only aid, Alex can't fly nearly as fast as his sister, Lightspeed. But with milliseconds to spare, he does reach Jack and _shoves_ him downward with both arms, focusing all his power on amplifying Mass Master's field of gravity until Jack sent is plunging back down toward the ground below, toward safety. Alex knows Julie will catch him before he lands.

All of this happens in fractions of seconds. Alex hasn't spared a thought for himself in his frantic bid to save his brother, but as it stands he's just spent all his inertia on Jack, leaving himself suspended in midair directly in the range of the blast. By the time Alex returns to the present, mind catching up with his body, it's already too late, and Iron Man's cannon-fire is eclipsing his field of vision. The blast catches him like a deer in the headlights, too late to dodge.

There's an explosion of heat and pain, awful and intense. He screams, trying to shield his face.

Then, wiry arms encircle Alex like a vice and the sensation of the blast is gone. Alex blearily opens his eyes, his whole mind a whirlwind of pain, and for a dazed moment he doesn't know if he's alive or dead.

He realizes, belatedly, that someone is holding him. "...Dad?" Alex asks disorientedly, vision swimming. He feels sick; lost and scared, like the little kid he had sworn never to be again the night he received his powers. "Dad, I'm—I'm so sorry. I tried to protect them...I swear..."

And, for a moment, he hears nothing but his own heartbeat drumming in his ears.

Then a low, soothing voice murmurs, "Fear not, child. You are safe here. And your siblings are safe as well."

Alex lets out a choked sigh of relief, overwhelmed by it. They're safe. He hasn't failed.

Secure in that knowledge, he can't help himself from immediately passing out.

Holding the boy securely in both arms, Loki of Asgard does not move for long moments, staring down at his unconscious charge with hard eyes, devoid of all mercy. The battle in Manhattan awaits him, but as far as Loki is concerned, it may wait yet a moment longer.

"These so-called heroes of Earth shall pay dearly for this deed," Loki vows after a minute of silence, unconsciously tightening his grip on the child. "Ones so young, even lower forms of life, have no place being pawns of battle. If the 'Avengers' cannot be charged to protect even children, from their costly defense of their world...then I suppose that burden must fall to me."

Still unconscious, Alex continues to breathe steadily. His charred skin has already begun to heal with unnatural, inhuman speed, another benefit of his powers. He'll doubtless live to fight another day.

But—Loki swears it—the Avengers will not have the same privilege, nor will his brutish alien collaborators, if they so much as _hint_ a protest at his command to leave these children be. With another flash of magic, Loki vanishes into thin air with his charge in tow, headed back toward the chaos raging in New York.

After all, there is hell to pay.


End file.
